S. Samuel
Rap mogul Jay-Z continues to push hip-hop's boundaries after raising eyebrows and heat waves with a six-hour long performance of his "Picasso Baby" Magna Carta Holy Grail track this week in New York City.
According to reports, Young Hov’s unexpected performance is part of an upcoming music video.
The hoopla surrounding Jay-Z’s latest album Magna Carta Holy Grail continued yesterday as the rapper performed his song “Picasso Baby” for six hours straight at New York’s Pace Gallery. Part of the rapper’s music video shoot, the performance was an homage of sorts to performance artist Marina Abramovic, whose 2010 installation “The Artist Is Present” saw her spending 736 hours in one-on-one encounters with MoMA visitors. Jay-Z’s performance was not as long, though the rapper did get in the faces of delighted onlookers, as well as a celeb or two. (Prefix Mag)
A few notable people were spotted in the crowd including Roc Nation’s own Wale.
The rapper is in the midst of performing one of the album’s tracks, “Picasso Baby,” for six straight hours at the Pace Gallery in New York. Footage of his performance is being compiled for the track’s music video. Also present, according to Huffington Post’s entertainment editor Kia Makarechi: director Judd Apatow, “Girls” actor Adam Driver, performance artist Marina Abramovic and rapper Wale. (ABC News)
Jay’s six-hour performance immediately sparked a slew of viral videos and photos.
Unlike at most video shoots, Jay-Z’s label reps allowed the audience to keep their mobile phones. The internet is full of amateur photos, clips and Vines from the event, and Fader obtained a copy of the official invitation. Based on Fader’s report, the crowd was intended as a “cross-section of the New York art and cultural world”, including important figures from the gallery and sales side of fine art. It’s a fitting concept for the song Picasso Baby, which includes lyrical shout-outs not just to Picasso, but also Mark Rothko, Jeff Koons, Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and the Mona Lisa. In his recent Twitter Q&A, Jay-Z said he was planning to release “six pieces of art” to accompany his new album: this video, directed by Mark Romanek, is presumably the first. (The Guardian)
The promotion may only help increase Jay’s first-week sales projections which are already up past 500,000 copies.
YOUR NEW RELEASES: Well, there’s Jay-Z and everyone else this week. Magna Carta Holy Grail‘s chart-topping first week should best the bows of his previous three releases, Watch The Throne (436k), Blueprint 3 (476k) and American Gangster (425k). Looks like Samsung’s marketing campaign is paying off for everyone. Here are this week’s key debuts: Jay-Z (Roc Nation) 475-525k Ciara (Epic) 55-65k Skylar Gray (KidinaKorner/Interscope) 15-18k Donell Jones (eOne) 10-12k As of this writing Magna Carta remains the #1 album on the iTunes chart in its “explicit” form, while the “clean” version occupies the #5 spot. Lead single “Holy Grail” featuring Justin Timberlake is #2 on the singles chart, while “Tom Ford” (an early fave among hip-hop heads) has bounced to #13. (7/10p) (HITS Daily Double)
Check out footage from the performance:
